Rambling on since 2005

Sign here. Press hard.

Do girls still do the autograph book thing? It seems so…1970’s to me. But I loved this autograph book. And in it are some wonderful things.

Like what my mother wrote in her beautiful handwriting on 5/27/73:

You have to live with yourself, and so,
You want to be fit for yourself to know
You want to be able as the days go by
Always to look yourself straight in the eye.
You don’t want to stand with the setting sun,
And hate yourself for the things you have done.

I memorized it and it still rolls off my tongue. (Though in hindsight, maybe a little serious for a 12 year old’s autograph book. But nice sentiment, Mom.)

And there’s my dad’s page:

I would rather be right than President!
On the other hand, I’d really rather be right and President.

If you know my father, I’m sure that you just laughed.

My brother signed his name and wrote his address. (As if I didn’t know where he lived.)

My sister wrote:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
That is that
But I love you

And you see it here – my first folded page. She was 8 years old.

I sat down the other day and unfolded and read every page of the book. And thought about each friend. Well, there are a couple that I have no clue who they are. But I thought about the rest.

I’m in touch with a lot of them. I know a little about some others.

I ‘talk’ to Risa all the time on Facebook – and see her at the occasional mitzvah.

Risa, do you still think this is funny? If it’s too small to read without reading glasses, it says

when you get older and fall over hedges, remember Risa who wrote on the edges.

And there this gem:

There are ditties from teachers (including the chorus teacher who asked me to please just mouth the songs), the principal, and various and sundry others.

But what motivated me to write this post in the first place is this next one. She was a good friend. Beautiful and kind. And this made my stomach drop.

I don’t know what she’s doing these days. I saw her at a high school reunion years ago. She was just as I remembered.